Generalized trust and intelligence in the United States

Generalized trust refers to trust in other members of society; it may be distinguished from particularized trust, which corresponds to trust in the family and close friends. An extensive empirical literature has established that generalized trust is an important aspect of civic culture. It has been...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2014-03, Vol.9 (3), p.e91786-e91786
Main Authors: Carl, Noah, Billari, Francesco C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Cognitive ability
Comprehension
Education
Entrepreneurship
Female
Happiness
Health Status
Humans
Intelligence
Male
Medicine
Models, Psychological
Personal income
Public Opinion
Public opinion surveys
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Social capital
Socioeconomic Factors
Sociology
Studies
Trust
United States
Verbal Behavior
Volunteerism
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Summary:Generalized trust refers to trust in other members of society; it may be distinguished from particularized trust, which corresponds to trust in the family and close friends. An extensive empirical literature has established that generalized trust is an important aspect of civic culture. It has been linked to a variety of positive outcomes at the individual level, such as entrepreneurship, volunteering, self-rated health, and happiness. However, two recent studies have found that it is highly correlated with intelligence, which raises the possibility that the other relationships in which it has been implicated may be spurious. Here we replicate the association between intelligence and generalized trust in a large, nationally representative sample of U.S. adults. We also show that, after adjusting for intelligence, generalized trust continues to be strongly associated with both self-rated health and happiness. In the context of substantial variation across countries, these results bolster the view that generalized trust is a valuable social resource, not only for the individual but for the wider society as well.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0091786